IUG Conference 2009 – Summary of Sessions attended
Forums on Cataloging and What’s New in Technical Services
These are two forums for conference attendees to ask questions and get answers from Innovative Product Managers. What was valuable in both sessions was the outline provided of updates to the Millennium Cataloging module in Fall 2009. These included:
- The creation within the Cataloging module of a new record type called volume (in addition to bibliographic, item, Checkin, order, and authority records). You would now have the ability to create separate volume records instead of putting volume information in the item record. This will be useful when cataloging multivolume sets and would allow patrons to place holds at the volume level. This is not an enhancement but must be purchased as a product.
- The ability to delete items records in batches by scanning the barcodes into a file
-Within Data Exchange in FTP mode the vendor name, user name and password can now be stored permanently. This will negate the need for repetitive typing of the same information whenever files are sent to or received from a vendor
- In the Record View Properties drop down menu, the options you choose, for example to display all records in a summary view can now be saved for your login and not only for the session are you currently in. At present, whatever choices you make are lost once you log out of Millennium.
-In create list III will add a new feature to allow you to save the profile you created to sort your records.
-Innovative has established an online University called InnoU –the Innovative University- which will provide courses to help you brush up on your use of Millennium skills. Courses will be offered in all of the modules. The sessions are interactive and available via a webcast with a live instructor. The cost per course is $200 per session and there is no limit on the number of persons who could attend. Information is available on the CS direct home page http://csdirect.iii.com/training/innou.shtml (requires user name and password which is available on the Library staff home page).
Global Update With Confidence
This session covered tips and tricks on using Millennium Global Update. Topics included a comparison with Rapid Update (what workflows are best suited for Rapid Update); how to use Global Update to add, remove, transfer or replace information; interpreting the results in the preview pane and troubleshooting. One tip I did not know about: There is an option in the Global Update tab which allows you to generate a review file of records which are busy during the update. These records can be later retrieved from the review file and updated.
Spine Label Printing with Print Templates
This session was valuable in providing information on how to print spine labels from the Millennium Cataloging module using Print Templates and a freely available software called iReport. At present all spine labels are printed using Innovative’s character based system (Anzio). The print templates are similar to the bibliographic and item records templates we currently use in Millennium. Millennium provides ready to use customizable print templates (view the Print Template tab in the Cataloging module) and also allows you to design a new or customize an existing template using the iReport software. The Presenter demonstrated the workflow for using the print templates- creating the template, testing it, and importing it into Millennium. One interesting suggestion was that the print templates can be used by Acquisitions staff who would be assigned the task of printing spine labels once a shipment has been received. These materials would go directly to the shelf for shelving on 3rd and 4th floors.
Serials Holdings Project
I held a consultation with one III Product Consultant who demonstrated how to export serial holdings records from Millennium using a Load table or loader specially built for this purpose. This consultation was timely as we are in the process of sending serial holdings records for OCLC to update by batch processing.
Digitization with Millennium and Content DM
This presentation gave an overview of the digitization of rare materials in the special collections at the University of Warwick Library in England. The presenter focused on the library experimentation with two products to create a digital collection: Innovative’s Media management and OCLC ContentDM. Both workflows were described in detail with the advantages and disadvantages of using both systems highlighted as well as the methods of importing and linking metadata from Millennium to CONTENTdm
ERM Forum
There were presentations from three libraries who have purchased the ERM module as a useful electronic resources management tool. Presenters shared their thoughts on the value of ERM, workflow strategies, library staffing, patron experiences, obtaining usage statistics and how an ERM system fit into the long-term objectives of the library. I am a member of the ERM committee and there may be some interest in exploring the workflow currently being used at the Oregon Health Sciences University. At this library, they have been successful in importing journal holdings from their A-Z list of library e-journals into the ERM module. Described as a coverage load, this option of importing journal holdings data is supported by the ERM module. A brief bibliographic record is created for e-journals with no existing records in the catalog and holdings information is automatically attached. If there is an existing bibliographic record for the e-journal in the catalog a holdings records is attached.
Playing With Matches: Using Regular Expressions in Create Lists
This session focused on using regular expressions in creating searches in Create Lists. Regular expressions are similar to the “matches” command used in Create lists and may be familiar to folks who write computer programming. What was interesting about this session is the presenter’s use of practical examples to illustrate what is at best a very difficult topic if one does not have a programming background. He emphasized the use of regular expressions to help with database maintenance.
I also attended demonstration sessions on the following III products:
Encore – III discovery and delivery interface with integrated Web 2.0 functions such as such as tag clouds, Did You Mean…?, ratings, reviews and additional features such as Popular Choices, Recently Added suggestions, relevance ranking and faceted search results,
Content Pro – Digital asset management software for managing digital collections.
Research Pro – Federated-search application that streamlines access to multiple data sources.
Encore Reporter – a new statistical reporting tool to be used in conjunction with Encore called the Encore Reporter. This new optional module can provide a series of reports and statistics on circulation, patron usage, holds, and overdue statistics.
Cheryl
